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Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#41

Post by have_faith »

kristianc wrote: post #35

> During the HomePod’s first 10 weeks of sales, it eked out 10 percent of the smart speaker market, compared with 73 percent for Amazon’s Echo devices and 14 percent for the Google Home, according to Slice Intelligence. Time and again, Apple has shown that they just don't really care about market share metrics. Apple cares about making money, and it is very good at it. It's self-evident that an expensive device that…

Also: "first 10 weeks of sales, it eked out 10 percent of the smart speaker market"

If you worked at a company and released a product that took 10% of the market within 10 weeks of launching you would be celebrating.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#42

Post by y_molodtsov »

jrimbault wrote: post #15
threeseed wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 million units shipped in 4Q 2017. 57.5% year on year growth. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/idc-data-apple-watch-on-top-...

In the same article they say the market of wearables also has less choice and other makers are already pulling out.

Other manufacturers are pulling out since there's no new chips for the watches being developed, so it's getting much harder for them to compete with Apple and Samsung, the only companies able to produce their own chips for those.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#43

Post by baldfat »

make3 wrote: post #8
SirHound wrote: post #3

I believe it. Siri is woeful. Plus they sell it as a high quality speaker yet it has no line-in for me to use with my entertainment system. For £350 that’s a hard pass from this Apple fanboy.

is Siri that bad compared to the other home assistants? from what I've seen at least, it feels pretty similar to google assistant and alexa (which imho is strictly worse than google assistant, but that's just an opinion)

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/05/smart-speaker-ass...

I would say Siri has been the worst of the three. Even an Apple centrist website shows how they are falling short.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#44

Post by briandear »

SirHound wrote: post #13
make3 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is Siri that bad compared to the other home assistants? from what I've seen at least, it feels pretty similar to google assistant and alexa (which imho is strictly worse than google assistant, but that's just an opinion)

I can’t speak for the other voice assistants but I use Siri purely for setting timers. If I try to ask anything remotely more adventurous it’s a crapshoot. Something as simple as “Hey Siri turn the living room lights off” is often turned into a full discussion because it misheard “turn” and is too stupid to infer it from the rest of the sentence.

Try this: “Hey Siri, how do you say ‘what is the correct voltage for this outlet?’ in French?”

The real time translation for the 5 or so supported languages is pretty incredible. I use it when I can’t think of the correct French to use if I have a worker visit my house (like an electrician, etc.)

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#45

Post by megaman22 »

aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

Amazon has, at various points, had sales such that they were almost giving away Echos. When prices are down in the <$100 range (or $30, for the Echo Dot during some sales), there's a lot of people that will take a flier on something and buy one for the hell of it and try it out. A homepod at $350 is more of a real investment.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#46

Post by stedaniels »

threeseed wrote: post #16
SirHound wrote: post #3

I believe it. Siri is woeful. Plus they sell it as a high quality speaker yet it has no line-in for me to use with my entertainment system. For £350 that’s a hard pass from this Apple fanboy.

It is a high end speaker. Audio testing has confirmed that. But it isn't designed to be a replacement for a 5.2, 7.1.4 etc system. But a pair of them with an AppleTV could absolutely be your 2.1 system for watching Netflix and listening to Apple Music.

Not yet it won't, because you can't currently pair them.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#47

Post by heavymark »

We bought several HomePods with the intention of replacing our Echos and Sonos. Though we knew the current version would only be a Sonos replacement and would take a few software updates before closing the gap with Echo/Google.

Apple knows it can't compete with them yet, which is why it focused as a Sonos competitor at launch until presumably iOS 12 when Siri will see a sizable update to better compete as well as offering more basic offerings such as multiple user recognition, stereo paring, brevity mode, intercom mode, Home App automation integration and such.

It will be a great product and think the price and being limited to Apple Music for now isn't a major problem but the Siri limitations and other items noted above are even for people in the Apple eco system. Once those are fixed and most heavy Apple users have one, then they will eventually lower the price, open up to third party apps, and the masses will come.

Let's just hope they update throughout the year often rather than waiting for long stretches like the other product lines.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#48

Post by opencl »

Robadob wrote: post #33
kondro wrote: post #20

I'd prefer to see the HomePod compared to the speaker market. I would bet that it sells better than Sonos.

The article includes market share and revenue share for Sonos One, which HomePod is higher in both.

It included the Sonos One, but none of their other models because they aren't smart speakers.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#49

Post by melling »

threeseed wrote: post #23
melling wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t going to iterate it into a $30-$50 product. Amazon and Google are going to sell hundreds of millions of their devices, which will allow them to improve their AI globally. Personally, I think the Dot is smarter than Siri. I still try to throw a few questions to my iPhone and Apple Watch, but like Apple Maps, it’s a less than satisfying experience. I need to get my girlfriend the Echo so I can stop the “Hey…

Siri is available on Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS and Macs. So Apple also will sell hundreds of millions of devices and allow them to improve their AI globally.

I guess I wasn’t clear enough.

I own all of those devices. I talk to my Alexa more than all those devices combined.

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